Chapter 14 - Artificial Intelligence in Amazon Fulfilment Centres Flashcards
How does Amazon stay ahead of its competitors? How much improvement has Amazon seen?
Through the use of machine learning like robots, computer vision systems, and productivity tracking systems. These centres process three times more than what was possible a decade ago.
Describe the technology used at the fulfillment centers
When workers unload an item from the truck and place them on the conveyor belt, the system scans them, as they come in, lists them on its website, and generates a payment to the suppliers.
Other workers will remove the products and place them on the shelves. In the past they would have to scan it to determine where they go, today there are cameras that watch when they pick something up and green light illuminates to tell them where to put it.
When did Amazon purchase the Kiva System? What is the Kiva system? Describe how it works?
Amazon purchased the Kiva system in 2012, which develops and produces warehouse robots. In the past when customers placed an order they would need to walk through the warehouse to find the item using a physical paper to find it. Today Kia robots bring shelves of products to waiting employees, who pick the necessary items from each shelf top fulfill the order, plan them in a bind, and send them along the assembly line to be shipped.
What improvements did Amazon make with the Excel spreadsheets?
Managers used to use excel spreadsheets to determine the number of workers required at each station to meet the demand. However amazon met with software developers to create a warehouse management system based on machine learning. It was error prone and slow overreacting to small changes in demand sending them to other stations, and right back after. It was time consuming and wasteful, but with time it learned.
How are the Amazon fulfillment centres managed today>
They rely on the warehouse management system a discussed above for recommendations, but they can override it if there is a serious problem. Rather than having a manager at each fulfillment centre there is one central location that manages multiple warehouses simultaneously.
What does the blue dots, yellow figures, and green lines represent?
The blue dots represent bots that are moving around the warehouse, yellow represents employees who load and unload the robots, and the green line represents the belts moving orders to the various stations and eventually to the delivery truck.
What is one amazon machine learning application that is placing immense pressure on people?
Productivity tracking system which tracks the amount of time it takes for an employee to complete a task. It instructs people on the tasks to do and the amount of time and identifying those who fail to meet those targets.
What have amazon workers reported with the productivity system?
It encourages them to skip safety rules and skip rest breaks due to the intense pressure. Many said they skipped bathroom brakes out of fear of getting fired from their jobs. Amazons rules also create an unsafe work environment and there are high rates of injuries at these locations, double the industry average.
What is the rabbit? What does it lead to?
It is a hand held GPD device that tracks their package deliveries. Many drivers keep working even if their shift has ended, and thus even employees outside the warehouse face extreme pressure and stress.
What have managers stated about the system at Amazon? What law has California Governor Gavon Newsom Signed into law?
They had to work in accordance with the recommendations of the machine learning systems and therefore had to sleep in his car after 12 hour shifts to feel refreshed and safe to drive home. Basically he banned the technology used by Amazon that makes workers abide by production quotas.
What is the overall message of the amazon fulfillment centres?
There are long term goals of building fully automated fulfillment centres that would minimize and eliminate human intervention. They must develop robotic arms and hands to grasp objects of different sizes and textures.
